Article July 6, 1899 Issue

Another Victory

Louise W. Chapman

God is our Refuge and our Fortress, our Tower and our Defence, our Strength and our Shield. Again materia medica has failed in its organized effort to crush Christian Science. I am sure that the readers of the Sentinel will be interested to learn how, under the guidance of divine Love, the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, of Minneapolis, Minn., has been the means of saving the Christian Scientists of Minnesota from an iniquitous medical bill which was designed to prohibit the practice of Christian Science healing in this state.

One Sunday, last February, we learned that a medical bill, prepared by or for the physicians, and introduced in both houses of the legislature, had been by the judiciary committee reported back to the Senate and recommended to pass, and that its consideration and passage had been made a special order in the Senate for the following Wednesday afternoon. This bill made it a criminal offence, punishable by fine or imprisonment, to practise the art of healing, under whatever school or system of treatment or of healing, unless the practitioner had previously passed, before the State Medical Board, the same examination required of physicians and surgeons; and it furthermore authorized the State Medical Board to refuse a license or to revoke a license already granted, if the practitioner should obtain "any fee on the assurance that a manifestly incurable disease can be permanently cured."

This bill had been prepared with the utmost care and, if passed, would by its terms have made the practice of Christian Science a crime. Each day's practice was defined to be a separate offence, so that the law-breaker would soon have become liable to imprisonment for life.

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